Brazilian credit card industry's revenue growes in Oct.

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 11 (Chinese media) -- The revenue of Brazil's credit card

industry grew to 19.8 billion reais (9 billion U.S. dollars) in October, up 21.3

percent from the same period last year, the Brazilian Association of Credit Card

Companies (Abecs) said Tuesday.

The highest increases in revenues were registered in the northern region,

with 23.4 percent, and in the midwestern region, with 22.5 percent.

The results showed that Brazilians kept consuming despite the international

financial crisis. Itaucard, one of the major credit card companies in Brazil,

also said the crisis has yet to affect the credit card industry.

The Abecs attributed the sector's increasing revenue to a rise in the

number of credit cards in the market, as well as greater spending in each

purchase.

The growing replacement of other payment methods, such as paying by check,

with more shops accepting credit cards, also contributed to the rising revenue,

the Abecs said.

The number of credit cards in Brazil reached 107.3 million in October,

up 18.6 percent from the same period last year. Credit card transactions

totaled 256 million, up 19.6 percent from October in 2007, and the average amount

per transaction increased 1.57 percent, reaching 77.5 reais (35.2 dollars).